Government benefits guidance forced to be withdrawn over racial slur

A government document which guides doctors on how to assess benefits claims has been withdrawn after it included a racist slur, The Independent can reveal.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance, first issued in 2010 to help assess disability Universal Credit claims but still in use until days ago, referred to Black people as being of the “Negroid race”.

The document, referring specifically to assessments for osteoporosis, has now been scrapped after The Independent highlighted that it was still in circulation.

It was signed off by the DWP, before being distributed to health professionals employed by Atos, a contractor which runs disability benefit assessments on behalf of the government.

One MP said the document was “lazy and racist” while a prominent race campaigner said the language was based on “colonial tropes” that suggest Black people are “subhuman”.

Atos has now apologised and withdrawn the document. The government said it did not condone the language but admitted it had been used.

The racial slur came to light through a Freedom of Information request, which asked the government to provide copies of protocols given to all Atos doctors assessing benefits claimants.

The excerpt said: “The density of bone in the adult depends on peak bone mass and subsequent alteration of bone density due to genetic, mechanical, nutritional and endocrine factors. Negroid race, load-bearing exercise, sex hormones (oestrogen), adequate dietary calcium tend to increases bone mass.”

After the use of the word was raised by The Independent, Atos launched an investigation. It confirmed the document had been handed out in Northern Ireland in 2010 but was still in circulation.

The company said it was issued to medics carrying out specific assessments, known as Medical Support Services (MSS), on behalf of the government.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy told The Independent: “Literally hundreds of years have passed since this racist term was coined and used as part of a basic, flawed, and discredited human classification system.

“Now decades have passed since the mapping of the human genome undoubtedly proved that race is a social construct; not a scientific one.

“Whilst it’s not unusual to find such archaic terms in old scientific texts, its lazy and racist to find them reproduced in guidance for government departments in 2023.”

The politician, who is a member of the all-party parliamentary group on race and community, added. “How much more ink would it have taken to simply say that people of African descent typically have higher bone density?”

Equalities campaigner Patrick Vernon, chair of the Birmingham and Solihull NHS integrated care board, said: “This guidance, which appears to be influencing healthcare professionals ‘til this day, is based on racist and colonial tropes around Black people which suggests that people of African heritage are subhuman, and should therefore be treated differently from the rest of the population.

“It’s quite clear the UK still has a long way to go for an anti-racist approach to be applied to how officials operate across government departments, as well as the delivery of services like health and social care.”

An Atos spokesperson it would investigate the issue further.

They said: “We are grateful this has been brought to our attention.

“We regret that this term appeared in Osteoporosis training materials for health professionals in one region of the UK – these have now been removed pending further investigation.”

A DWP spokesperson said Work Capability Assessments in Northern Ireland are a devolved matter and that it was the responsibility of the Department for Communities (DfC) in Northern Ireland.

But a spokesperson for the DfC said the DWP is responsible.

A DWP spokesperson said: “We do not condone the language used in this 13-year-old document, which was produced for the use of Atos health professionals in 2010”.

A DfC spokesperson said: “The Department for Communities did not commission or approve this guidance but regrets the use of this language in material owned by its Work Capability Assessment provider in Northern Ireland.

“The department requested, and has received assurance, that all guidance material is now fit for purpose. The introduction of a new Functional Assessment Service in Northern Ireland in 2024 will see the approval of all training and guidance material brought in-house.”